Introduction to Searching Databases and Records

What is a database? A database is a large, organized collection of information. Addresses Recipes Citations to books Photographs Full-text articles A database can be printed or electronic.

How are databases organized? Each item in a database is called a record. In the phone book, a record contains the name of a company, the address and phone number. In a catalog, a record contains the citation to an item (mostly books), subject headings and location. In an article database (index), a record usually contains the citation and an abstract.

How are databases organized? Printed databases, like phone books, are searched by browsing for items grouped by subject or in alphabetical order.

How are databases organized? Online databases are searched by matching search terms to the content of the record. To increase searching effectiveness, records are organized into fields. Keyword – searches multiple fields at one time (title, abstract, subject heading); broadest type of search Title – searches just the words in the title Author – searches the for authors; usually lastname firstname Subject headings – official terminology

What are subject headings? “Controlled vocabulary” Set of standard terms used to describe the contents of items in a database. A term in a controlled vocabulary may describe a person, an event, an idea, or a place. Often referred to as subject headings or descriptors. Differ from database to database.

Why use subject headings? Subject headings draw together under a single heading all the material that is available on a particular topic regardless of the words used by the author.

Example Let’s say you're trying to find all the information you can in the library on the topic of the World War I. What term would you use? World War I? First World War? WWI? World War One? European War? Great War? War to end all Wars?

Subject headings in the Catalog The UW Libraries Catalog and most libraries use the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). The complete list of LCSH are published in 5 volumes. World War I books: World war Vietnam War books: Vietnamese conflict

Library Classification Systems Each book is given a unique number (call number) to indicate its location The subject matter of the book and the author’s name determine the call number Material on the same subject is shelved together to facilitate browsing

Two Call Number Systems Dewey Decimal all knowledge is divided into 10 broad categories Uses numbers Vietnam War Library of Congress all knowledge is divided into 20 broad categories Uses letters A-Z Vietnam War DS557 – DS559

Record from Catalog

Record from AHL

Record from NYT

Create a Record Quickly skim through article and create a record with the following info: Author Title of article 2-3 sentence abstract (summary) 3 subject headings (from list)

Mock Searches Author:david oshinsky Title words:we live now Keywords: exaggeration Keywords:stolen valor Keywords:fake vietnam vets Subject:historians united states ethics Subject:Vietnamese conflict influence Subject:nineteen sixties nostalgia Subject:ellis joseph j

Proquest

Expanded Academic Index